Friday, 4 June 2010

Newquay sends home drunken teens

Another summer and Cornwall braces itself for another series of stories highlighting the activities of visitors to Newquay.

Last summer there were the tragic deaths of two young visitors who fell off cliffs when drunk. We also saw organised pub crawls causing chaos and distress to local residents. As a result, the Newquay Safe project was started by Cornwall Council working in partnership with the town council and local Police. My colleague Geoff Brown also went on a tour to schools in Berkshire (where one of the victims came from) to warn of the dangers that alcohol can bring in seaside resorts.

No one in Newquay wants to stop visitors coming to enjoy the sun, surf and sand. But there have been a large number of problems which have gone beyond what anyone considers reasonable.

Today comes the news that two 15 year olds have been sent home to Bristol having been found drunk and wandering the streets. What makes this more than simply young people doing what young people do is that they were on holiday in the resort on their own.

No one pretends that we can stop all under age drinking, but Newquay is acting to try to stop the annual invasion by unaccompanied under 18s.

I hope I'm not coming across as a killjoy. I'm hardly one to preach. But the actions of some parents is really quite unbelievable.

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